Lucy Zelic opinion: A revived Voice is not what we need to hear

The defence of Welcome to Country and contemplating another Voice, means the real issues that Indigenous communities are facing are ignored, writes Lucy Zelic.

Lucy Zelic

When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the nation following the resounding No vote in the 2023 Voice referendum, his eyes told a story far greater than his words.

Red-eyed and full of emotion, he declared that while the result was not one that he had “hoped for”, he would “absolutely respect the decision of the Australian people and the democratic process that has delivered it”.

He continued by saying it was the “right thing to do” and “I will always stand by my beliefs” but when ABC host David Speers questioned how Indigenous Australians would feel about the fact that neither he, or Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had “visited an Indigenous community so far in this election campaign,” the Prime Minister deferred to political spin about funding.

Perhaps Labor bureaucrats feared that cracks were forming in Albanese’s pledge to work in “genuine partnership with First Nations people”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently entertained the idea of the Voice being revisited.

Cue the trip to Alice Springs this week with Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney.

Albanese’s last visit to the region was in January 2023 during a local crime wave.

For all of the posturing that we’ve heard about accepting “the decision of the Australian people in that referendum”, it was ironic then, that Foreign Minister Penny Wong chose to exhume the topic on a podcast three days out from an election.

“I think we’ll look back on it in ten years’ time and it’ll be a bit like marriage equality don’t you reckon?“ she asked.

Wong later realised she wasn’t toeing the company line and clarified that “the Voice is gone” in an interview with SBS News.

“What I would say is, that doesn’t mean reconciliation and closing the gap stops, and we need to keep together, progressing those.”

Lucy Zelic says our enemies are not Indigenous Australians – it’s the false prophets speaking on their behalf and using their plight for their own gain. Picture: Nathan Smith

It was a timely comment because while self-righteous politicos and academics have been staunchly defending the relevance of Welcome to Country, they’ve done a spectacular job of missing the point, and that’s the real issues that Indigenous communities are facing.

As it stands, 57 per cent of individuals incarcerated in the Northern Territory are related to DV in some capacity and the escalating domestic violence is reaching devastating numbers.

But social justice warriors aren’t stridently marching through Belmore Park demanding answers.

They only do that on January 26 when they don’t have to reduce their European sojourn by a day because the evil colonisers have already declared it a public holiday.

When I spoke with the Minister for Domestic Violence Prevention in the Northern Territory, Robyn Cahill, the revelations were confronting.

“I see it most in the child protection space. I have reviewed a number of cases where I can see where intervention into a child’s life didn’t happen for fear of creating another stolen generation and the result of that has been we have literally created the next generation of people who don’t know how to function properly in our world,” said Cahill.

Young people, she says, have also become more “savvy” and begun to use “racism” as a means to escape consequences.

“A situation happened in our CBD last week. A group of kids worked their way through the CBD into shops pulling merchandise off the shelves, taking things away,” Cahill revealed.

“The shop owner said to them: ‘You need to leave the shop, you need to get out’ and then the response from those kids was: ‘Oh you’re just racist, I am not doing anything wrong’.”

So how much more out of touch are the rest of the country with what’s really going on?

When I asked Ms Cahill if we can ever repair the relationship with Indigenous Australians and see ourselves as one, her answer is simple.

Debate about excessive use of Welcome to Country ceremonies has taken the focus away from the plight of Aboriginal people. Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

“If you’re talking about those noisy people who make all those noises, I don’t know, I don’t think it suits their agenda. Most of the Aboriginal folk I know, they already believe that.”

It’s ironic then that the only state or territory in the country to vote Yes for the Voice wasn’t in fact the Northern Territory. It was Canberra.

And what of the Prime Minister’s commitment to “continue to seek better outcomes for Indigenous Australians and their children and the generations to come”?

I asked Ms Cahill if Albanese has ever visited a domestic violence women’s shelter or spoken with people who have been incarcerated while she has been in the role.

“I’ve only been here eight months but in the eight months I’ve been in this space, no.”

Napoleon Bonaparte once said: “War is when government tells you who your enemy is. Revolution is when you figure it out for yourselves.”

But our enemies are not Indigenous Australians – it’s the false prophets speaking on their behalf and using their plight for their own gain.

Do you have a story for The Daily Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email [e-mail]